Erwin Wiens Selected as 2023 Grape King

Nov 17, 2023

Grape Growers of Ontario and Farm Credit Canada are pleased to announce that Niagara-on-the-Lake grape grower Erwin Wiens has been chosen by his peers as the 2023 Grape King (pictured – credit Denis Cahill).“We are delighted that Erwin Wiens has been selected as 2023

Grape King. Erwin will be a wonderful ambassador for the Ontario grape and wine industry,” says Grape Growers of Ontario Chair, Matthias Oppenlaender. “The annual crowning of the Grape Kingis a time honoured tradition that began in 1956 to recognizeexemplary vineyard management and knowledge of the industry,” says Debbie Zimmerman, CEO of the Grape Growers of Ontario.“FCC is pleased to support the tradition of naming an Ontario

Grape King and with it, celebrating the best in the business like this year’s recipient, Erwin Wiens. Erwin exemplifies all the best qualities of Ontario grape growers. He contributes to the innovation, product quality, shared knowledge and enhanced access to consumers that ensures the long-term success of this valuable agricultural sector.” said George Klosler, Senior District Director, Farm Credit Canada. “Erwin is very deserving of being named Ontario’s Grape King and we wish him continued success.”

The Grape King carries the distinction of being nominated by their peers and selected by our industry judges who visit each of the nominated vineyards. The Grape King serves as a representative for Ontario’s grape and wine industry at events across the country, starting with the Invitational Grape Stomp on September 17th in Montebello Park and in the annual Grande Parade on September 23rd at the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival.

Erwin was raised in a fruit farming family. He attended Carleton University for Criminal Law where he met his wife, Dorothy. They raised four accomplished daughters, Brianna, MacKenzie, Taylor and Jessica and have a son-in-law Daniel. Today, Erwin and Dorothy tend to a thriving 120-acre vineyard, cultivating a range of grapes including Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Merlot.

Erwin is a valuable member of the Board of Directors of the Grape Growers of Ontario since 2015, where he now presides as the Chair of their Sustainability Committee. Furthermore, Erwin is Chair of the Niagara Regional Irrigation Committee and a member of both the Niagaraon-the-Lake Irrigation Committee and the Agricultural Committee.

Following a distinguished 31-year career in law enforcement, Erwin retired from the Hamilton Police Service. Since 2018, Erwin has been an integral member of the Niagaraon-the-Lake
Town Council, where he currently holds the esteemed position of Deputy Lord Mayor. In this role, Erwin also lends his expertise as a Board member on the Niagara Parks Commission and the Niagara District Airport Commission

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”

Erwin Wiens Selected as 2023 Grape King

Trending Video

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Business News by Better Farming

General News by Better Farming

Forums by Agriville.com

Machinery News by Better Farming

Crop News by Better Farming

Livestock News by Better Farming

Sponsored Links: